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Dorothea Jensen

A Buss from Lafayette

Synopsis

SOMETIMES ONE LITTLE KISS CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING, ESPECIALLY ONE FROM A WORLD FAMOUS HERO OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION! Now available in print, digital, and audio editions.
Gold Medalist (Middle School/Historical Fiction) Literary Classics Award; 1st Place Winner (Historical Fiction) Purple Dragonfly Book Awards; Bronze Medalist (Juvenile/Young Adult Fiction) eLit Awards; Finalist, (Historical Fiction) Red City Book Awards; Quarter Finalist (Middle Grade) Booklife Prize; Finalist (Young Adult) Book Excellence Awards. Also named on the Grateful American Kids website as one of the best history book for kids to read. Clever young Clara Hargraves has a couple of big problems. First of all, she has a new stepmother, formerly her old maid schoolteacher aunt, who keeps trying to make Clara behave like a lady. Secondly, she has red hair, which means she is constantly teased, especially by an older boy, Dickon, and her beautiful cousin, Hetty. During the last week of June, 1825, Clara's small New Hampshire town is buzzing about the upcoming visit to the state by the Revolutionary War hero, General Lafayette. Could an unexpected playful kiss from a charming, world-famous Frenchman change Clara's life forever?

Author Biography

Dorothea Jensen is proud to be one of a very few people who has boarded a pirate ship and attacked a Viking vessel manned by real Vikings wearing horns and furs. She was born in Boston, but grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois, site of the Viking adventure. She then earned a BA in English from Carleton College and an MA in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico. She has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South America, taught middle and high school English, tutored refugees in ESL, written grant proposals for various arts organizations, written a play performed in Noh style, and raised three children.
Her first historical novel for young readers, THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM, has been used in classrooms for many years as an enrichment resource for kids studying the American Revolution. Her next novel, A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE, is set in 1825 in the small town in New Hampshire where she has lived since 1991.
Dorothea also writes modern Christmas stories in verse. Modeled on the 19th century classic poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas", these award-winning Santa's Izzy Elves story poems feature decidedly 21st century elves savvy in modern technology.

Author Insight

Exchanging Busses for Posies!

Of course, as I've mentioned in various places on the internet, it was just such a little girl who inspired me to write this book. She was the great-grandmother of an elderly woman I met in 1997 who presented Lafayette with a posie in 1824 in Northampton, Massachusetts. In return, he gave her a buss—a kiss—on the cheek. As an old lady, that little girl made a point of passing Lafayette's kiss along to her granddaughter—the mother of my new friend—who passed it to her daughter, who actually passed it along to ME! So that means I've been kissed by someone who was kissed by someone who was kissed by someone who was kissed by Lafayette. (I think I've got that right.) I figure that since thousands of little girls (and bigger ones) were bussed by Lafayette on his Farewell Tour, there must be many, many people today who have received kisses at many removes from the Great Man Himself!

Book Excerpt

A Buss from Lafayette

When Lafayette did finally arrive,” the stranger continued, “I was happy to see a little girl waiting there excitedly hand him her little bouquet of roses. She was so thrilled when the Nation’s Guest—the real Nation’s Guest—bussed her on the cheek.